MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
fleet of canoes, must have brought the same feelings of 
superstitious awe as did the ships of early European explor- 
ers to the uncivilized islanders among whom they came. 
As we have seen, man appears already in the Old Stone 
Age to have grasped the idea that he might increase his 
supply of food by his own efforts, although, so far as we 
know, he never got beyond the point of using magical 
means. The beginnings of true agriculture are most prob- 
ably to be sought in this transitional period to which we 
must ascribe so many inventions of primary importance in 
man’s further development. Of course, no abrupt change 
in the practice took place, and but little, consciously at 
least, in theory. We have learned today that the best 
way to succeed is by assisting nature. Primitive man 
tried to control her, for he had not yet reached the con- 
cept of fixed and invariable natural laws. For a long 
time, in consequence, he placed much more dependence on 
magical rites than on actual planting and cultivation. 
Not so many years have passed since our own immediate 
ancestors fully believed that, in order to grow best, seeds 
must be planted while the moon was waxing and not 
waning. The student of ancient man must never forget that 
man has had only experience to teach him; and he has often 
been very, very slow in drawing the right conclusions. 
At first the primitive husbandman probably did little 
more than protect certain edible plants by clearing away 
weeds and keeping birds and animals from destroying 
them. Since man derived strength from eating them, 
they were thought to be imbued with “‘medicine”’ ane 
therefore deserving of respect. 
Some edible plants are even today only half domesti- 
cated; water cress and various berries, nuts, and fruits, for 
example, are still often gathered wild. Progress in agri- 
culture, just as in everything else, has been so slow and 
uneven in different parts of the globe that we can still 
see today almost every one of its various stages 1n actual 
existence among this or that people. 
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